Peace March at Capitol in Salt Late City

About 300 members of a group marching across the country to promote peace gathered Saturday at the state Capitol to listen to speeches, plant a peace tree and enjoy music from the march’s “Band of Believers.”

“I am representing 3,000 people who can’t go (on the march) who I’ve met and talked with,” said Suzanne Mendleson, a 75-year-old retired artist from Santa Monica, Calif.

Mendleson, sporting a T-shirt saying “Don’t Let Our Children Die, Mr. Reagan,” said, “It’s very simple isn’t it? I had a luxury house. I was a retired artist. Without peace, what will we have?”

Members of the Great Peace March arrived in Salt Lake City from central Utah with plans to spread their message of nuclear disarmament in a public rally and in local churches.

Marchers on the 3,200-mile cross-country trek were looking forward to sleeping in the homes of local residents for the first time since leaving Las Vegas in mid-April, spokesman Chris Ball said.

The marchers, who began the trek in Los Angeles on March 1, will cross into Colorado Tuesday. The next major stop en route to Washington, which marchers hope to reach Nov. 15, is planned in Denver May 30, about a week behind schedule, Ball said.